Mark Hamill tried to support female politicians and the awful internet completely missed the point
An overreaction? From Twitter users? Say it isn't so
Mark Hamill tried to do a nice thing, but we quickly learned that what he did was bad somehow.
Weird, that, as it’s not like everyone on the internet to completely miss the point whenever someone tries to do something good.
The Star Wars actor has never been one to keep his political views under wraps on social media, at least not since the election of Donald Trump, but he has received a backlash for his latest suggestion.
It comes shortly after he praised a bullied kid for not fighting back, which lots of people also had a problem with.
Anyway, following on from the American midterm elections, Hamill has called for women to take charge of government completely. OK, so he’s being slightly tongue-in-cheek when he says ‘completely’ but the point is clear: we need more women in politics, and Hamill certainly seems a fan of newly-elected and inspirational politicians such as first Somali-American in congress Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman elected to the House of Representatives.
Perhaps his suggestion has something to do with the monumental mess that is Trump’s presidency. Regardless, Hamill had his say and we applaud it but people have gone in on him, because that’s how online debate works now.
It all started fairly innocuously, as these things often do in these testing modern times, with a tweet.
The responses to Hamill have been loud and confused, but mostly loud.
It should come as no surprise for you to learn many of the responses came from people who call themselves things like ‘cyber patriot’ or ‘firearms enthusiast’, or who consider whiskey a defining character trait that works incredibly well with a neckbeard.
There are legitimate things you can say about Hamill’s comments – you can point to female leaders who have done less than stellar jobs, for example, although we’d still argue that collectively men have probably done a lot more damage over the years and that leaping your way out of a genuine and progressive discourse, throwing your toys out of the pram and screaming about reverse sexism is not a winning move.
Politics is for everyone, not just orange megalomaniacs with perpetual bad hair days.
QUIZ: Who said it - Mark Hamill or Daisy Ridley?
(Images: Getty)
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